


Revelations

by A55hole69



Series: The Great Adventures of Roman and the Avengers [6]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Deaf Character, Disabled Character, Dogs, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Maria Stark's A+ Parenting, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Unethical Experimentation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-11-02 11:07:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20724932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A55hole69/pseuds/A55hole69
Summary: Tony thought it was a good idea to watch Howard's "home movies" and winds up horrified at the results.





	Revelations

For some reason, Tony decided that today was the day he would go through his father's things. Howard left several large boxes behind when he died, and neither Tony or Roman had ever got around to going through them. Roman always had some kind of excuse and Tony didn't want to do it without his sister. But today, he was ignoring that. He got Pepper and Natasha to help him look through the boxes.

So far, all they found was old junk that no one needed. There were baby pictures of Tony and only Tony, he tried to find at least one of Roman but came up short. He figured she already had them.

After half an hour of going through Howard's old shit, Pepper came upon a box of cassette tapes, VHS tapes and six film reels. Which lead them to the workshop to watch them. Nat insisted she left, this was a family thing, and walked off to her room.

Tony set up the necessities to watch whatever it was on the tapes, with Pepper's help. He turned the lights off, started the projector and sat down next to his wife.

Neither of them didn't know what to expect but it was not an almost three year old Roman, strapped to an examination bed, crying.

"This is the first attempt at the serum, I researched for months with hundreds of scientists, so theoretically, this should work. My baby girl was not perfect when she was born, too many flaws, I intend to correct that the same way we fixed Steve Rogers. I don't know if this will work, but I'm willing to risk it."

Tony watched his father walk over to his sister, with a tray of needles filled with a dark blue substance. "Mina, read daddy's lips. Romina! Read daddy's lips. This is going to hurt a bit, but you should be able to hear daddy when this is over." 

Tony ripped the film out as soon as the screaming started. He couldn't believe what he just witnessed, and suddenly wondered if the rest of them were like that. 

"Tony, maybe we shouldn't..." Pepper grabbed his hand but he ripped it out of her grip and looked at her with tears in his eyes.

"I have to know what happened to her." Pepper nodded and helped him set up the next reel.

It started very similarly to the last one, Howard standing in front of the camera with a slightly older Roman in the back ground, "This is attempt number three. The other two attempts did nothing to cure Romina's hearing impairment, but it did get rid of the asthma and the autism. Although it gave her a temper problem, she's been it several fights at school, and bit her math teacher two weeks ago. We're going to see if we can change that with today's treatment." 

Tony watched his father move over to a four year old Roman, strapped down in the bed, "You know the drill, this is going to hurt a bit, but you're gonna be my perfect little girl when this is over."

Tony ripped that reel out and put in another one.

"This is attempt number seven, Roman is still deaf, unfortunately, and she's gotten even angrier. On the bright side, she doesn't have that annoying lazy eye anymore, and we don't have to waste money paying for glasses any more. I've worked with the scientists at SHIELD, they've done their best at recreating the formula based on the Captain's blood..."

There was a scream in the background from Roman, Howard moved from the camera to look back at her, and Tony gasped when he saw his mother holding seven year old Roman down by the shoulders.

"Maria, you need to keep her quiet."

"Keep still you little brat." Roman being Roman kept trying to get away until Maria slapped her in the face three times. 

Howard turned back to the camera, "As I was saying..."

Tony ripped out that feel and put in another one. Howard's face popped up, "This is attempt number sixteen, Romina is ten years old now, she is still deaf, and getting angrier and angrier with every treatment. If this doesn't work, I don't know what will."

As usual he moved over to her, but this time, Roman ripped out of the restraints, and stabbed Howard in the arm with a scalpel. She tried getting the restraints off her legs and getting away but Howard grabbed her face, and made her look at his lips.

"If you don't go through with this, it'll be your precious little Tony, strapped down to this bed next week, he's around the same age you started at, maybe it'll actually work on him."

Roman's eyes went wide and she immediately stopped struggling, and shook her head frantically. She started groaning and grunting, it's how she's used to sound when she tried to talk sometimes, and it sounded like she was pleading. Howard got a sadistic look on his face and he nodded.

"Now lay back down." She did as he said, "Good girl."

Tony stopped the feel and knocked it to the ground. He took one of the VHS tapes and had Jarvis scan it to play it. A drunken Howard popped up on the screen, his hair was disheveled and his eyes were bloodshot. 

"I have been outsmarted by a goddamned ten year old. I've been trying, for nineteen years! Nineteen fucking years, so my little girl could hear my voice and nothing. Not a goddamned thing! But this little bastard, studies otorhinolaryngology for three months, and makes her hearing aids. She lit up like a Christmas tree when she heard his voice for the first time, and forgot about everything I tried to do for her. Nineteen years, I slaved away trying to find some way she could hear everything, and her ungrateful little ass, can't even say a thank you. If it wasn't going to ruin my reputation, I would kick them both to the curb, having children was the biggest mistake I have ever made."

*

*

Roman was on her way back home from an anger management meeting. It was court ordered, so she had to be there. It wasn't as bad as she had initially thought, but it wasn't exactly working. She'd been going there for about six months now and nothing, but it was nice hearing other people stories in dealing with it.

She saw one of Tony's cars parked outside her house and frowned. Tony never came all the way over there unless it was an emergency, which worried her slightly. 

She checked the car first, sometimes Tony like to sit inside and wait. But it was empty. Roman opened the gate to the stone walking path, and walked up to the porch. Tony wasn't sitting out there either, meaning he found the key she usually left for her wife. 

The dogs weren't outside anywhere, Tony probably let them in. She jogged up the stairs and opened the door. Roman smiled when she heard the sound of paws running too the front door, the first one to get to her was Chowder, the black Chow Chow, then there was Minion and Terk, the black pitbulls, Stitch and Zazu, the white Great Danes, Kida the German Shepherd, and Gru, the Doberman. Tabitha, the sphinx cat, was probably sleeping, given that it was seven in the afternoon.

Roman scratched their heads, "Hey guys, where's Uncle Tony?" Minion barked and ran to the living room with the others following. She chuckled and dropped her keys in a yellow and green ceramic bowl, took off her denim jacket, and toed off her sneakers.

She found Tony in living room, looking at Carolina's paintings of fruit, with a frown on his face. "Why the long face?"

He turned, Tony looked like he had something to say but couldn't get it out. He stood there stuttering for a while, before he broke down and gave her a bone crushing hug. Roman, confused as hell, bent down to accommodate his height, wrapped her arms around him and let him cry his eyes out into her neck.

"Is there anyone that should be murdered for this?" She asked softly. He shook his head in her neck, "Okay."


End file.
